♡ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ꜱᴀʏ ɴᴇᴠᴇʀ ♡

1 5

I looked in the bathroom mirror after my shower, thankful to wash off the pain of last night. My hair was damp, as I had patted it dry with a towel and brushed through it, and it was laying around my shoulders messily. I put on a pair of jeans and one of Soda's old plaid shirts and left the first couple of buttons undone. It was my day off and I didn't plan on going anywhere, so I wasn't too obsessive over my looks.

I walked out of the bathroom and saw Ponyboy and Johnny on the couch, watching TV.

"Well, look who finally decided to get up," Pony said, grinning.

I knew what he was doing: he wasn't truly happy, he was just trying to forget about last night and move on from it, pretend that it never happened

I woke up at eleven o'clock that day, so Soda and Darry were long gone by the time I got up to shower. It was the latest I had slept in ages. I rolled my eyes and waved him off. "Oh, shove off. You try working 16 hours in one day."

I went to the kitchen to make myself something to eat to see a plate on the counter with a couple of slightly burnt pancakes.

"Soda tried to make breakfast today," Pony said from the living room.

"I can see that," I replied. They didn't look that bad and I didn't feel like making anything, so I just decided to eat them.

"How are they?" Johnny asked when I went back to the living room and sat down.

"They're okay," I chuckled, "with enough syrup."

We all laughed and I smiled. It seemed like things between Johnny and I were finally returning to normal.

"Did y'all have fun with Dal yesterday?" I asked after a few moments of silence. I kicked myself, knowing I shouldn't have mentioned yesterday.

But Pony's eyes lit up. "Oh, yeah. You're never gonna believe what happened."

"Oh yeah?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow. "What's that?"

Pony grinned. "Man, we met two of the best lookin' girls I'd ever seen."

"Ya know 'em?"

"One of 'em, yeah. You know uh...Cherry Valance?" Pony said as he looked to Johnny, as if for confirmation. He just chewed the inside of his cheek.

"Yeah," I said, "who doesn't?"

"Dal was botherin' her, so she asked us to sit with them to 'protect them'."

I smiled. "Is that so?"

Pony blushed. "Yeah. She was real cute, right Johnny?"

Johnny darted his eyes towards me before looking back at Pony. "Yeah, she was pretty cute." He smiled.

Cherry Valance. Goodness, how could I compete with her? I suddenly felt sad and a little hurt. I thought for sure the moment Johnny and I had meant something, but I guess all that was out the window now. He never liked you in the first place, Cary, I told myself, you're just friends.

Pony's voice broke into my thoughts. "Ya know, Cary, you were right. There are good Socs in town."

I smiled at him, trying to hide my disappointment. "Well, would you look at that. Ponyboy Curtis is crazy about a girl. A Soc, even." I laughed. "Never in a million years did I think that would happen."

Pony blushed again. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

I knew Soda probably heard about it last night.

~

It was raining that day, so the three of us decided to stay in.

Ponyboy eventually stood up from the couch and started walking towards the stairs. "I'm gonna go read a book or something."